BRICUP Newsletter 77 June 2014

CONTENTS its heart, and it will centre on Silwan – a major archaeological site and possibly the most P.1 Indiana Isaacs meets Lara contested area of Jerusalem. Filming started there Netanyahu – NBC TV series starts on Thursday June 5th. filming in Jerusalem The possible implications of this project spread well beyond Israel/Palestine. The key figure in the P.3 The PACBI column whole enterprise is Gideon Raff, who created the Academic Boycott Grows in May 2014 Israeli series Hatufim (loosely translated as Prisoners of War) which was snapped up by US TV before the Israeli series even started filming. P.5 An updated report on the action It became the hit series Homeland, on which Raff against Jake Lynch is executive producer. Not just a hit in the US, but also in the UK (Channel 4) and round the world. Raff is a former IDF paratrooper. P.5 The RIBA Motion to suspend Israel If DIG should rival Homeland in its popularity, the scope for Brand Israel publicity is all too P.6 Open letter to Manuel Hassassian, evident. That is why the Israeli government has gone the extra mile to make sure that it happened. Palestinian Ambassador to the UK DIG is the first recipient of a newly created grant from the Israeli government and the Jerusalem P.7 The Palestine National Music municipality designed to lure big-budget projects to Jerusalem. In other words, a tailor-made bribe. Competition Other programme makers have protested.

The size of the bribe is 22 million Israel shekels P.8 Notices (£3.8 million) some of which will only be paid if **** the programme returns to film a second season. Funding comes from several ministries, including Indiana Isaacs meets Lara Netanyahu – those of Finance, of Economy and of Tourism. NBC TV series starts filming in The new grant is being justified as a vehicle Jerusalem to boost employment and investment in Jerusalem, strengthen the current film and This article describes an ongoing cultural boycott television industry and (says Variety magazine) campaign, with a British angle. “perhaps most crucially – [to] help brand NBC the major US media company has been Jerusalem and the State of Israel in a positive bribed with Israeli gold to film an action- light”. adventure series in Jerusalem. DIG’s lead is We don’t just have to take Variety’s word for this. British actor Jason Isaacs, and the director of the We have it from Minister of Jerusalem and first of its 6 episodes is also British – SJ Clarkson. Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett: “A picture is Extraordinarily the story line has archaeology at worth a thousand words — sometimes shooting a 1 series in Israel is worth more than a thousand recognize Israel’s purported annexation of East publicity tours of the country,” Bennett said. The Jerusalem, and to the great majority of the world’s project would "brand Jerusalem as an nations Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem is international tourism destination." straight forwardly illegal. So here is a major US He went to meet the whole DIG team (including television channel filming in an illegally occupied Isaacs, Clarkson and Raff) as soon as they territory, and taking Israeli government money in arrived. Not to be outdone Jerusalem’s mayor Nir order to provide a publicity coup for the Barkat had dinner with the cast and crew. Barkat occupying power. of course is notorious for presiding over the A compounding factor is that at an early stage it ethnic cleansing of whole areas of Jerusalem. But was announced that the filming would take place he is outshone in notoriety by Bennett, head of the in Silwan. This is a highly contested area of East far-right Jewish Home (Habayit Hayehudi) party. Jerusalem, and archaeology is right at the heart of Bennett has been described as “an upfront racist” the trouble. Silwan is home to some 55,000 who is on record as saying “I’ve killed many Palestinians whose neighbourhood is being Arabs in my life and there’s no problem with subjected to deliberate erosion. Homes are being that.” systematically demolished and families displaced These are the people that the crew of DIG in order to build Jewish-only settlements and (including its British members) are dining with, facilities. Human Rights Watch has called on and they are not using a long spoon Israel to “immediately end unlawful demolitions Lets look a bit more closely at the theme of the of Palestinian homes”, and says that these series, and at the location of the filming. activities quite possibly amount to “forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory, Archaeology, now that would be a nice safe, which is a war crime”. uncontroversial subject, wouldn’t it? Well no actually. Consider the BBC4 television series Archaeology comes into the picture because Archaeology: a Secret History screened last Silwan is an ancient, perhaps the most ancient, spring. That is, it was all screened except the section of Jerusalem. It is a buzz of archaeological programme Jerusalem: an Archaeological activity, but predominantly carried out by Mystery Story, which was pulled just days ahead archaeologists who "hold a spade in one hand and of its scheduled (and widely advertised) a bible in the other" as they scramble to verify screening. It was shown months later in a re- biblical events. The City of David, it is claimed, edited version, and followed by a studio lies below the Wadi Helweh neighbourhood in discussion ‘for balance’. What then was so Silwan, and this justifies the digging, the shafts controversial about happenings 2000 or so years and the tunneling going on into the hill and under ago? Well, the programme presented the homes of the people who live there. archaeological evidence which suggested that the Remarkably the excavations in Silwan are exodus of the Jews after the destruction of the controlled not by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Second Temple – didn’t happen. Which would nor by a university archaeology department, but imply: that the descendants of the Jews of that by a private organisation. This is the Ir David period are – the Palestinians. This is clearly Foundation, popularly known as Elad, which is highly charged territory. “dedicated to the preservation and development of It is probably safe to assume that DIG has no such the biblical City of David and its environs." But it dangerously revisionist ideas about the foundation is also committed to establishing ideological myths of the Jewish people. What has been Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem revealed about the plot is that it revolves around neighbourhoods - creating ‘facts on the ground’. FBI detective Peter Connelly (played by Jason Many people see Elad as an extremist Isaacs) who happens to be working in Jerusalem. organisation. “Armed with an explicit political He “finds himself embroiled in a race to track agenda”, says Yonatan Mizrachi, archaeologist down a religious artifact that could trigger an with Emek Shaveh (an NGO devoted to event that would change the course of history, and interrogating political archeology in Jerusalem) becomes the suspect in a sensational murder.” So Elad “is now the driving force behind much of the excavation of Jerusalem”. Its archaeological sites not a threat to belief, but perhaps a serious requirement for the suspension of disbelief. fence local (Palestinian) residents off, excluding them from what were playgrounds, sidewalks, The plot may or may not provoke outrage for its roads etc – for them to be subsequently take on the history of the Holy Land, but its incorporated into the City of David National Park. filming already has. The United States does not 2 NBC’s announcement that it would film its new The PACBI column drama series in occupied Jerusalem has generated strong opposition, not least in the United States. A Academic Boycott Grows in May 2014 5000 name petition was handed in at NBC offices in New York and Los Angeles calling for the In 2012, the Palestinian Campaign for the network to end its involvement in the series. The Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) fact that filming would take place in such a called on its supporters world-wide to sensitive neighbourhood has added to the outrage. Faced with growing opposition, NBC ducked and intensify all aspects of BDS, but to especially weaved. Cory Shields, Executive VP of focus, whenever possible, on academic Communications at NBC International, wrote to boycott. Specifically, we call on faculty and the General Delegation of the PLO to say “NBC student activists to pressure their academic Universal Cable Entertainment reiterates that organizations to end collaboration with complicit there are no plans, and there will be no plans, to Israeli academic institutions or organizations, film ‘DIG’ in the City of David National Park or and not to organize or participate in conferences the village of Silwan.” When activists wrote to in Israel. Furthermore, we appeal to academics NBC seeking assurances that the series would not not to publish in Israeli academic journals and to be filmed in any other East Jerusalem location all withdraw from editorial boards of international they got was silence. journals based at Israeli universities. We also They need not have worried. The NBC assurance urge academics and students to oppose study- was a lie. When filming started on Thursday June abroad programs that place students from the US 5th it was in the tunnel that links the City of and Europe at Israeli universities. David National Park in Silwan with the Archaeological Park and Davidson Center, which One and a half years later, the Association for is located near the Western Wall. Filming is also Humanist Sociology and the Association for due to take place at other sites in the Old City, Asian American Studies passed resolutions and in Sheikh Jarrah, another Jerusalem endorsing a full academic boycott of Israel. Less neighbourhood which has been the site of intense than two years after the 2012 statement, four other settlement activity. U.S. academic associations had passed resolutions What of the British lead actor, Jason Isaacs? or shown unwavering support for BDS, these Liverpool born, he has appeared with the National being the Critical Ethnic Studies Association Theatre, but will be better known to younger (and (CESA), the Arab American Studies Association maybe older) audiences for his performance as the (AASA), Native American and Indigenous Death Eater Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter Studies Association (NAISA), and the American films. His parents have settled in Israel. BRICUP Studies Association (ASA). In addition, at least in collaboration with other UK cultural boycott one university department, the University of activists has been contacting British actors Hawai’i Ethnic Studies department, came out sympathetic to the cultural boycott about his officially in support of BDS. The US Campaign involvement and their advice is unanimous – it for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel would be professional suicide for Isaacs to (USACBI) led that direction in the US. withdraw at this point, and as a result we will not get support from theatrical people for a request Just recently, over 700 academics appealed to that he does so. (He has however been contacted participants of a Film Studies conference and an by fellow actors pointing out the problematic Oral history conference both taking place in nature of the situation he has got himself into.) As Israel. Those appeals resulted in cancellations a result we will be making our contribution to the from major participants of the Film studies international campaign in a different way. The conference and the loss of Alessandro Portelli as aim must be to get the message into the acting Keynote speaker in the Oral History conference profession so that its members are more fully [1]. aware of the moral hazard they would place themselves under should they be invited to film in Student councils on campuses across the US, occupied Palestine. Britain, Ireland, Spain, Norway, South Africa, among others, have taken to heart the BDS Jonathan Rosenhead movement’s message and succeeded in passing **** BDS-related resolutions, mostly divestment from companies involved in the occupation, despite 3 unprecedented bullying and smearing from Israel military occupation in Palestine. This and its well-oiled lobby groups. motion goes beyond the symbolic initiative as “the Wesleyan Student Faculty and student activists around the world Assembly (WSA) holds a separate have played a key role in expanding the scope of endowment that will soon be divested campus-based boycott initiatives especially in the from companies implicated in the Israeli US, Britain, Spain and Norway. In comparison to occupation” [6]. previous years, where the BDS movement witnessed one to two academic boycott initiatives  In Florida, the University of South Florida per year, there has been an exponential increase in chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine the last two years. The month of May 2014 alone gathered an unprecedented 10,000 has seen a vibrant display of action and success in signatures for a petition calling for the realm of academic boycott. These are: divestment. The petition is the largest student petition in Florida history [7]  In the UK, the National Union of Students (NUS) Black Students' Conference [2]  In the autonomous region of Catalonia in adopted a motion in support of BDS. The the Spanish State, a campaign for Black Students campaign, is a self- academic boycott has attracted the backing organised autonomous section of the NUS, of over 800 academics, students and and "represents the largest constituency of university staff [8]. In addition, activists Black students in Europe and students of forced the Secretariat for Universities and African, Asian, Arab and Caribbean Research in Catalonia to examine descent, at a local and national level on all campaigner’s proposals aimed at ensuring issues affecting Black students" [3]. the new deals for academic collaboration with Israel do not benefit institutions and  In California, the student government of companies that participate in Israel’s the University of California at Santa Cruz occupation. [9] passed a divestment resolution, the fifth of nine campuses of the UC system to do Each month, academic boycott initiatives and so. This comes after a defeat on that successes increase, forcing the Israeli academic campus a year ago and shows the establishment and the Israeli regime at large into a changing tide and growing support for panic and propelling them to high alert. BDS has BDS on American college campuses been deemed one of the biggest strategic threats [4]. The UC Santa Cruz motion passed to Israel [10], and the government has called for despite bullying and fear tactics by Zionist allocating millions of dollars to combat the groups and an intensifying anti-BDS movement. The BDS movement and its global campaign funded, promoted, and activists and organizational partners, however, are supported by the Israeli government and unperturbed, and as we show above, have doubled its lobby groups. their efforts and propelled their energies. We have reached a tipping point, the taboos are  In Chicago, students at DePaul University, breaking, and fear is dissipating. All of Israel’s the largest Catholic university in the US, resources cannot stop the march towards freedom, passed a resolution in similar conditions of justice and equality by a movement that relies on fear and intimidation from Zionist conscientious citizens of the world. groups. Students voted by 1,575 to 1,333 (54% to 46%) in favor of a referendum PACBI calling for divestment from companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Notes: Lockheed Martin and Caterpillar for their complicity in Israel’s violations of [1] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2446 international law and Palestinian human [2] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/eur rights [5]. ope/11564-nus-black-students-conference- endorses-bds-slams-israeli-systemic-racism  In Connecticut, Wesleyan University [3] http://www.nus.org.uk/en/who-we-are/how- students also voted to support divestment we-work/black-students/ from companies profiting from Israeli 4 [4] http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora- barrows-friedman/we-are-turning-point-uc-santa- Shurat HaDin issued a statement insisting that its cruz-passes-divestment case was still on track, but under a different [5] http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali- approach. “By refusing employment to an Israeli abunimah/depaul-students-vote-divestment- professor simply because he is Israeli, Lynch despite-israeli-government-interference plainly violated Australia’s anti-racism law, [6] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2425 which was legislated to protect against [7] http://electronicintifada.net/content/how- discrimination based on national origin and israel-buys-loyalty-us-university- religion,” Professor Lynch has strenuously denied administrators/13399 he discriminated against Professor Avnon, who [8] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2444 took up the fellowship in another Sydney [9] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2429 University department. He says his stand on BDS [10] http://www.alaraby.co.uk/politics/b83b59c1- is directed against the policies of the Israeli state 8651-41c6-9bda-4373a7d870e3 and not individual Israelis. The case is due to resume next month.

**** The material for this article was extracted An updated report on the action against by the editor from a report by Ean Higgins th Jake Lynch in The Australian, May 28 2014

The Israeli legal activist group Shurat HaDin, has **** now had much of its case against Jake Lynch The RIBA Motion to suspend Israel (University of Sydney) struck out , See BRICUP Newsletters 70 ( November 2013) and 74 (March The Motion to suspend Israel from the 2014) for details of the case. International Union of Architects (UIA,see BRICUP Newsletter 75 , April 2014) received a Instead, under new lawyers, Shurat HaDin will barrage of pro-Zionist pressure on the RIBA from narrow its racial discrimination case to Professor American and British Jewish architects –including Lynch’s refusal to endorse Professor Dan the famous Richard Meier, and Daniel Libeskind Avnon’s application for a fellowship at Sydney who reprimanded the RIBA for targeting Israel. University. The four other applicants, including Yet it was the Israeli architects Eyal Weizman Israeli academics and lawyer Andrew Hamilton, and Rafi Segal who had documented the politics have indicated to the court they want to withdraw of Israeli architecture at a proposed exhibition from the case. Shurat HaDin has been ordered to entry on behalf of Israel at the 2002 UIA General put up a $100,000 bond for costs should Professor Assembly in Berlin entitled “A Civilian Lynch win. Occupation” and who came out with cogent support for the move to suspend Israel. Here is The landmark case involves competing arguments Weizman’s statement which was published in The about academic freedom. Shurat HaDin argues Architects’ Journal on April 10th, 2014. that Professor Lynch has breached the academic freedom of Professor Avnon while Professor Abe Hayeem Lynch argues Shurat HaDin is trying to breach his. STATEMENT in support of the motion which The case has seen a surge of campus support for was adopted by RIBA Council on 19 March, Professor Lynch, who heads Sydney University’s 2014. Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and claims The duties of professional organizations such as that the latest developments in the case are further the International Union of Architects and the tactical victories. ,” Professor Lynch told The Royal Institute of British Architects are not only Australian that “This legal action was conceived to promote design excellence but also the political as an attack on political freedom in Australia by a and ethical implications of architecture, in the UK foreign agency, so we should all be relieved that it and internationally. Such organizations must thus is now failing in court. [..] Its effect has been to confront violations of human rights and draw interest and support from many more people international law, especially when these violations here for the Palestinian call for an academic and are undertaken by architects and through cultural boycott of Israel.” architecture. 5 Notes; The author is co-editor of ‘A Civilian The Israeli regime of military occupation is in Occupation’ He is an architect, the Professor of violation of international law including the Visual Cultures and director of the Centre for Geneva Convention and human rights laws and Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University regulations. This is accepted by virtually all of London. Since 2011 he also directs the international bodies including the International European Research Council funded project, Court of Justice, the UN, the EU amongst others. Forensic Architecture - on the place of architecture in international humanitarian law. He In the context of Israel’s occupation, architecture is also the author of “Hollow Land” which — employed for the construction of settlements, exposes the complicity of Israel’s architects in segregated roadways, industrial zones, and the creating the architecture of Occupation. wall — is the very means by which these violations are perpetrated. Israeli construction in **** the Occupied Palestinian Territories is undertaken Open letter to Manuel Hassassian, upon land illegally seized from its private or Palestinian Ambassador to the UK public owners. It squeezes out Palestinian communities, robbing them of their resources and Dear Professor Hassassian water, and cutting them apart from each other. Criminal charges against peaceful protestors in The architecture of Israel’s occupation is an Ramallah ongoing form of violence that must be stopped. We are writing to you concerning the disturbing While not all members of the Israel Association reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty of United Architects are involved in building in International about the arrest and ill-treatment of Occupied Palestinian Territories and many may peaceful protestors at the Al- Qasaba Theatre in be against such actions — as an organization it Ramallah on April 12th. must take an ethical and legal stand, but it has not. Anyone who has seen the built realities of Israel’s As you know, the call from Palestinian civil occupation would understand that this stand is society for boycott, divestment an sanctions also professional. Architects should be pained to against Israel has been taken up by a wide range see the beautiful and fragile landscape of the West of Palestine solidarity groups around the UK, Bank ruined by a form of architecture that is as including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. It is careless as it is criminal. widely regarded as a most valuable means of both expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people At a time when political negotiations seem to be and bringing international civil society pressure to shipwrecked, forms of civil non-violent action are bear on Israel to end its 66 years of injustice and the only avenue left to help Israelis and oppression of the Palestinian people. Palestinians escape this pathway of mutual destruction. Activists across the UK therefore find the news of these arrests and mistreatment of BDS activists by The accusations of anti-semitism against the the Palestinian Authority police deeply disturbing, RIBA, predictable as they might be, are offensive particularly since many of us have engaged in to both Jewish and non-Jewish signatories of this similar protests inside UK theatres and other initiative, to those of us committed to peace there, public places without arrest. We strongly believe and those of us working for social and spatial that continuing with these charges will reflect justice in other places. Worse, they wilfully invert very badly on the reputation of the Palestinian perpetrator and victim, divert the discussion from Authority internationally. We therefore ask you the ongoing suffering, theft and violence enacted to use your influence to ensure that these charges through the architecture employed in the context are dropped, that the acts of violence against the of Israel’s occupation, and close an avenue for a peaceful protestors are investigated and those better and more hopeful future. responsible brought to justice. Our initiative is undertaken by people closely Yours sincerely familiar with and deeply respectful of the place and its people. Non-intervention in this context is Monica Wusteman not neutral but the taking of a political position On behalf of York Palestine Solidarity for the violent status quo by default.’ Campaign Eyal Weizman Jenny Lynn

6 On behalf of Halifax Friends of Palestine as a centre for teaching and administration, Linda Clair complete with a number of fine grand pianos, and sound-proofed teaching studios. On behalf of Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign ESNCM also has exceptional new premises in Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi Beit Sahour (Bethlehem) and a soon-to-be-opened centre in Ramallah - spaces and facilities that On behalf of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods would be the envy of every Conservatoire in the Robert Boyce UK. As the situation in Palestine develops in the coming years, I hope that the eyes and ears of the On behalf of the British Committee for the world will also be opened to the inspiring Universities of Palestine development of music amongst young Cc Dr Hanan Ashrawi Palestinians. This is a musical story as well as a political one. **** The Palestine National Music Tom Hammond Competition Notes The bi-annual Palestine National Music Competition took place in Jerusalem in April, Re The Edward Said National organised by the Edward Said National Conservatory http://ncm.birzeit.edu/en Conservatory of Music, Palestine (ESNCM). Re Tom Hammond www.tom-hammond.com An international panel of experts travelled to adjudicate young Palestinian musicians in a wide **** range of instrumental categories, and in both Western and Arabic music. Most candidates could travel to Jerusalem to perform live (including some from Gaza, a minor miracle brought about by European embassies and EU representation), but some were not given permission and had to compete via video link from Ramallah or Gaza.

It was extraordinary to see the reactions of the jury members who had not been in Palestine before - I am a regular visitor - they had no idea how high the standards were going to be, and in many cases said that what they heard was better than what they would have expected in their own countries, including Norway, Sweden, the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

Amongst the winners was a 14 year old trumpet player from Gaza, who had memorised his entire programme, and an Arabic/Jazz fusion ensemble from Jenin, who narrowly beat a string quartet from Rammalah playing a rarely heard unfinished work by Edvard Grieg.

I think many European musicians - and sadly Israeli ones too - would be shocked to know that music is so well developed in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The musicians performed at the Yabous Cultural Centre in East Jerusalem, and the nearby branch of ESNCM; a delightful 19th century building newly converted for bespoke use 7 Notices BRICUP is the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine.

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